Game 1: Relatively Competitive with ranked Michigan
Game 2: Relatively competitive with ranked Notre Dame
Game 3: Bit of a struggle with Cleveland State, rallied and won
Game 4: Handled Detroit Mercy fairly easily two days after the CSU game
Game 5: What will happen when Marquette men’s lacrosse has to deal with a Harvard team that at least has a claim to be the #1 ranked team in the country?
That’s what we’re getting on Saturday with the Crimson fresh off a win over then-#1 Syracuse last weekend.
Marquette
appears to have a well balanced attack with Tucker Mullen trailing three points behind the team lead of 13, which is currently tied up with both Carsen Brandt and Nolan Rappis there on eight goals and five assists. Beau Wesphal moved himself up into a tie with Brandt and Rappis for the team lead in goals, and all of those guys are averaging at least four shots per game.
But that’s not the secret to how Marquette beat Detroit Mercy, at least according to Lacrosse Reference:
On the other side of the ball, the defense was the real driver of the blowout. Adjusted for Detroit’s offensive level, Marquette held the Titans to just 0.53 shots per possession, a massive improvement from last year’s 1.05. That’s not just better than 2025; it’s better than any single opponent-adjusted game they played all of last season. The result was a defensive efficiency of 13.2%, less than half of the 31.3% they allowed in 2025. The key here is how they limited opportunities: fewer shots per trip, very few second chances, and a lot of empty possessions before Detroit could even test the goalie. And with the game never really in doubt, it’s worth noting they could afford to be solid rather than hyper-aggressive; this wasn’t a defense selling out for turnovers, it was one quietly suffocating an overmatched offense.
Saturday on Long Island is probably going to be a bit of an uphill battle for Marquette, but if they can get a defensive performance to keep the Crimson in check long enough to give the offense chances to poke holes on the other end…. well, maybe that’s a pathway to snapping a 16 game losing streak against ranked opponents.
Game #5: vs #4 Harvard Crimson (3-0)
Date: Saturday, February 28, 2026
Time: 11am Central
Location: Chaminade High School, Mineola, New York
Streaming: Varsity Media on YouTube
Live Stats: Stat Broadcast
Bluesky Updates: @AnonymousEagle
Marquette is 0-1 all time against Harvard. The only meeting in program history came last year in Cambridge, and the Crimson came away with a 20-16 victory where they went up 8-2 early but the Golden Eagles hung around and made it at least a little interesting the rest of the way.
Harvard started out the season perhaps the way you’d expect the team ranked #13 in the preseason Inside Lacrosse poll to start the season: Grinding out wins over teams earning votes in the poll. They were tied with a Providence team that was earning votes in the poll early in the second quarter before scoring six unanswered goals through the end of the third quarter to take a 9-3 lead and won 10-4. Next time out was a bit more definitive, going up 5-1 at the end of the first against a Colgate squad earning votes and leading 11-3 at the half. The final margin was 17-8, but the shots were kind of even in the second half and Harvard committed 20 turnovers in the game on their way to failing eight clearances. Lopsided on the scoreboard, maybe not exactly the cleanest win that head coach Gerry Byrne would like to see.
Game #3 of the season was a breakthrough for the Crimson in their third straight home game of the year. After falling behind #1 Syracuse 4-1 after one quarter, Harvard scored all five of the goals in the second quarter to take a 6-4 lead into the break. Three straight for the Orange, four straight for Harvard. Five straight for Syracuse, and it was 12-10 for the visitors with six minutes to go. But two goals 17 seconds apart pulled Harvard even and Nathan Cobery provided the heroics in the final minute to give the Crimson a win over the #1 team in the country and vault them into the top five of the rankings heading into this game.
It’s only been three games, but that’s a lot of the lacrosse season, and so we have to take Lacrosse Reference putting the Crimson at #11 in offensive efficiency and #10 in defensive efficiency pretty seriously right now. On the offensive end, Harvard has seven guys averaging a point per game led by 14 already from Teddy Malone. He’s got 11 goals on the year to get to that team high in points, and that’s after Syracuse held the senior from Delaware to just a goal and an assist. Six guys on this roster are averaging a goal per game and both Malone and Nathan Cobery are north of two goals a game.
On the defensive side of the field, Graham Stevens is anchoring things in net. The eight goals per 60 minutes is fancy enough, but he’s stopping nearly 58% of shots on goal. That’s going to carry you a pretty solid distance, even if tempo starts picking up and a few more goals go in because of increased shot total. Four Crimson players are averaging at least a caused turnover per game, and that includes attacker Jack Speidell, who has 10 points. That’s an interesting dimension to Harvard’s ability to keep the ball in their end that Marquette is going to have to watch out for here.
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